PROBLEM:
The need for academic success is shouted loud and clear, but the execution by our choosen professionals is weak and expensive. The citizens of Metro-Atlanta are either not looking or not looking in the right places to achieve educational excellence. Those parents with money and/or with real effort send their children to private/religious schools that offer a better opportunity for their children. No surprise that the failure of those students remaining in the public school system is progressively greater with good money creating poor results. No high school in the Metro-Atlanta area is in the top 100 schools in the U.S.A. The 100 ranked school is in Augusta and is the only school in Georgia to reach that high level in USA News Gold Medal List posted in 2009.
SOLUTION:
Single out those students with the least chance for success and provide schools closest to their homes whose leaders and teachers are their parents.
Those remaining students, with the best chance for success are to be educated by their parents as leaders in schools closest to their homes.
PROCESS:
Let parents/taxpayers decide whose students should go to which school, 'least chance' or 'best chance' schools nearest their home.
Children and parents who succeed will continue to attend the 'best chance' schools.
Should a child succeed and not a parent, the child will continue at the 'best chance' school.
The failing parent will no longer be a part of the 'best chance' system until retrained and accepted by the parents remaining in the 'best chance' school.
Funding and facilities will be equal in all ways.
EXPECTED RESULTS:
For 3-5 years, complete chaos: bus drivers and teachers' unions/organizations strike, school administrations battle in court, politicians/lobbists howl, gay/lesbians fight over who is the parent, 'career' oriented parents divorce because neither wishes to have the child, parents fight physically/verbally about each decision/action, and children are given a new view of education.
Parent-Teacher assignment now has real meaning.
Public Libraries are full of students and parents.
Home schooling increases dramatically.
Retraining schools for failing parents are created.
Retraining (reform) boarding schools for unruly, and/or unlearning students are expanded.
Special education students, slow learners, physically handicapped, religious/ethnic preferences, are swept away into the hands of the parent-teachers to deal with themselves.
School buses will be filled with children and their parent-teachers going to the school nearest their home.
Parents not legally in the country will have to meet the parent teacher standards or will be returned to their home country.
Parents unable/unwilling to become parent-teachers will be given other productive assignments within their childs' school.
Funds for education go directly to the best chance, least chance, and retraining schools.
Professional educators, academics, administrators,and consultants will be out of work unless they are parents or are needed in their school elected officials district.
Least chance schools will disappear within 5 years.
Best chance students will be educated to match their talents.
Successful parent-teachers will be leaders in the community.
Suggested Approachs
Organization
A Committee made up of the current PTA officers, the local area elected council person, and several interested parents/taxpayers will handle the selection of students, teachers, and school leader(s) and staff.
Independent professional CPA and a Lawyer will be hired/assigned/paid for by the elected government for each Committee to help pepare budgets and audit first hand the accomplishments as well as to handle all legal matters.
Each school will receive its fair share of the education funds directly from the state/county/city tax districts that raise/receive the money. Some allocations to a school will be different because of the higher mission cost of the least chance programs, the parental schools, and the retraining schools.
The Head of School will be accountable to the Committee for the budget, academic course selection, facility maintenance, assignment/management of staff/teachers, student accomplishment and the public.
The School District will be funded and managed directly by the elected state/county/city government. No separate School Board/Superintendent/Administrator will be elected/appointed, but a member or members of the elected government will be responsible for the school operations. This is the area where the "pork barrel" and educational society savings can occur.
The elected officals have an opportunity to make a real name for themselves and a true contribution to their constituency for the first time if politics don't get in the way as does the current four, five or even six tier administrative system we now have.
The Committe and the Head of School will prepare monthly a summary report of activites in the school covering academic accomplishments, social/athletic activities, student body statistics, finances, and student/teacher/parent community projects underway/completed.
There will be four(4) three(3) month academic sessions each year. Free days (holidays/vacation/community service) will be a part of each these session periods.
At the end of each academic session, an evaluation of all aspects of the Committe/Head of School, teachers/staff, students/parents activites will be prepared and published. This report is required reading for the above group and each individual will sign that they have done so. Comments/rebutals/improvements/ratings are to be directed to the Committee in written format.
Changes in student/teacher/committee/staff member assignments will follow these appraisals. Under some cases when no qualifed personnel are available in the school, the Committe will go outside to hire qualified teachers/staff/Head of School. Under no circumstances will the Commitee membership be be from outside the school.
No other official organization is allowed to represent the groups except by approval of a simple majority of all groups involved who accept the responsibilites and authority of the organization.
The retraining schools for students and parents will have the same structure and rules of operation.
The focus on the students classified as "least chance" is significant. More creativity, better teachers, and administrators are needed in these schools since the mental skills, or physical capabilites, or emotional disabilities, or racial/ethic stigmas, and/or weak parental guidance of these of students pay off much better than even those "best chance" students. These least chance students have a real motivation to move up because they know or can be taught to overcome their "handicaps", handicaps many of which they did not create.
Current Local Example
Fulton County School System
2011 Budget Proposed - Taxpayer millage rate 18.502 is planned to raise $803,171,724 property taxes. The Federal, State and other revenue sources will addtional $207,106,955 for a total expenditure to educate an estimated 92,000 students in 101 schools in North and South Fulton County of $1,010,278,682. The average cost per student using these numbers is $10,981. Since all schools vary in size and complexity of academic operation, a dollar amount per school is only interesting at $10,002,759 though not realistically correct. All numbers come directly from the Fulton County Schools web site without any change as shown on 8/10/2010.
One school each in the elementary, middle and high schools in Fulton County ranked in the top ten in each caregory of the State of Georgia's 2056 schools based on the Achievement Score.
Georgia is consistantly near the bottom of the nations' academic accomplishment rankings along with Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina.
Graduation rate from Fulton County's High Schools is 84.7% with 5,336 students graduating out of 6299 eligible. 81% of the graduates plan to go to college/technical school per the student self reporting from the Fulton County Schools. The average freshman graduation rate for Georgia in 2005-2006 was 62.4% based on the IES National Center for Education Statistics as published in September, 2009. These two graduation statistics are not comparable, but must stand on the own merits.
It is my opinion, that spending $10,000,000 in each school district to use entirely on their schools/pupils each year would be amazing to the local PTA, Head of School (Principal), Teachers, Parents and Taxpayers. Even the more correct number of $10,981 per pupil would be impressive for most schools.
The Fulton County School system is under the direction of the Board of Education elected county wide and managed by the Superintendent. It is estimated that $200,000,000 (20.0%) of the budget is spent on this group. This number is yet to validated for 2011, but has some validity from past years' reports.
The SAT scores for Geogia for 2010 show Georgia's students to be at the low end of the academic scale, scoring well below many similar states in the north and matching or exceeding peer states in the South. Not acceptable goal for most parents and education excellence supporters. The College Board for inspiring minds State Profile Report - 2010 is available at
www.collegeboard.com.
The Fulton County Board of Commissioners has 6 members plus the Chairman. The schools would be divided by geography, political sub-division, or student/school numbers to get each of the six commissioners relatively equal leadership opportunity to supervise the an average of 30 schools (15 least chance + 15 best chance). The Chairman would handle the newly created parental schools, the student boarding schools, and the oversight of planning and the results of the school system. This is clearly an added responsibility compared to the present for the commissioners. As a result, some will need to resign if they are a parent (and must serve in the school system), some will need extra staff to assist them in the administration (not management - no passing the buck) of the schools under their elected direction. The new job of county commisioner will be a really important professional job requiring education and management skills. The pay of these positions will have to adjusted upwards to compensate for this new added set of duties.
PROBLEMS TO BE RESOLVED
A few examples of solutions to hard choices.
1. No one wants their child to be selected by their neighbors to be assigned to the "least chance" school.
It is better that a child have a fair chance to learn with those kids equal with current skills and compete on a level playing field. Unlike most growing up situations, education is not a sporting event where some one or team must win - by the bigger score the better. (See Georgia's current cheating scandals in the Atlanta Public School.) The teacher/parents and support staff will focus on similiar levels of skills and hence not be required to play favorites or leave someone behind. You can change the name of the "least chance", but the reality is that it is better to push everyone upward at a uniform pace - no need special classes or events for the "favored ones".
This may not appeal to the "A" type mind-set mentality, but the public school student we are dealing with, I believe it is the best approach. HIGH acheiver parent or student will find their way to home schooling or private school and that is okay with me.
Parents who have difficulity managing their children academically will be on hand every day to work with them, their peer students, and parents/teachers with similiar needs and maybe some ideas for improvement for both the parent and the student. Remember, the parent who needs help is sent to special schooling to help their academic and societal capability to in turn help their child.
2. Many parents are not skilled as teachers, or the mix of available personnel don't match the local needs, or some do not want to take on the teaching job so not enough people are available to teach.
This is a realistic concern in some areas of the community and is the very reason we recommend that parents who are not themselves well trained or educated be sent to school.
If the parent does not have the skill, it is clearly harder for the child to acheive academically. What a great chance for everyone to improve their minds - all at the same time.
Push, come to shove, the local Head of School may have to do some horse trading between schools for particular skills or even hire one the many available teachers without school children who live in the community. Some teachers may even have to move to the community where the needs exist and to find a job.
At the worst case, some parents may be better able to meet their parent teacher requirement by working in staff postions for the school where their child is. They still will ride/drive the bus with their child, be with them at school, and be able to be totally involved in the education process. No different titles are used - every parent is a teacher - some just do a different type of teaching.
3. How about special skills or avocations like sports, the arts, manual/technical interests, unusually erudite kids? Where do those kids go?
Right after school, the parents and the kids get back on the school bus or SUV for the special locations where each of these type of activities take place - maybe some are right in the same home community facility. Wow, no car pooling/soccer Mom syndrome. Each school does not need to have a program for each of these added talents. Since the parents are doing the job of after class teaching, they can lead the way to organize these important efforts.
4.Sounds like a big added expense for teaching parents, and special weekday boarding schools for difficult/slow learning children. Where does the money come from to cover these "extra chance school" and "least chance" school activities?
The added expense will be significant in some communities. The huge pool of money equal to 10-20% of the budget saved by doing away with the bureaucratic central office crowd should be used for that purpose. By the way, those schools must not be given a penality/prison like design, but set up as a bonus for the student who is being given an extra chance/effort to be the "best chance" graduate.
The most recent statistics from the U.S. Department of Education 2009 Digest of Education Statistics show 2.6 million students (5.2%) in the U.S. aged 3-21 are classified as "specific learning disability" in 2007-2008. They represent the largest category (40%) of the 13 disability categories recognized under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The opportunity for success is also greatest in this area of the student population when we focus our effort here.
5. For whatever reason, some parents will not want to participate.
Yes, and it is okay. Public school systems are not for everyone. The hope is that the parent will have the ability to come up with an equal or better solution for their child. The community must monitor those type of people so that we are sure the kids are getting the best opportunity possible. Since the elected leaders are now the education leaders, those parents who don't join in will be seen thru the eyes of the civic/regulatory bodies more clearly to receive the extra training and maybe even punitive treatment.
6. It is going to be a lot of extra effort to get parents to devote so much time to directly educating their children 24/7!
Yes, you are right. Please look at what the results are for not doing a concentrated effort to provide superior educated kids in our country today. Now is the time to make a significant effort to overcome the continued slow but sure drop in academic and attendant social values in nation.
Authors' Credentials.
Almost none, but were I a parent, I would consider being a part of the improvement effort - big time. I do teach part time the emotionally disturbed children whose parents do not know how to help their child. So the child is taken away from them (at very, very great expense) to hopefully retrain/educate them. But what do I know, I am 80 and "over the hill"?